Turtles all the way down

My almost-five-year-old is learning to read, and like everything else he gets into, he’s taking it to the next level.

Getting my older son to read was like pulling teeth at times. Today, at seven and a half, he’ll sit and read a book for an hour or more at a time. But in Kindergarten he wanted to be read to. He resisted reading on his own. Our reading sessions were forced and not fun for either of us. Somewhere along the way, around the beginning of first grade, something clicked and he began reading. He’s still not an aggressive reader but he’s doing fine and reading above his grade level.

My older son’s approach to learning reading was top down. He would struggle to sound out a word, and would try to memorize the letter patterns or would guess the word from context or pictures on the page. I would have to keep telling him, “Don’t just guess, look at the letters!”

My younger son’s approach is bottom up. He will focus on the words on of the page and ignore the pictures and context. He aggressively tries to sound out words, often ignoring the context that would make his task easier. I have to remind him, “Look at the page, what is there a picture of?” or, “Think about what makes sense in that sentence.”

The boys are so alike yet so different.